Former UNLV football player Beau Orth has won his medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor whose botched spine surgery ended Orth’s football career, a jury ruled Wednesday.
In 2009, Orth noticed pain in his lower back. An MRI scan from the time showed that Orth’s L5-S1 disc was herniated – that is, the cushiony material between vertebrae began to slip out of place – and after the pain became more intense, he pursued surgery.
Dr. Albert Capanna was the one who performed the initial surgery on Orth’s back in Sept. 2010. However, it was determined by the jury that Capanna mistakenly operated on a different disc – L4-L5 – than the one that was initially causing Orth’s pain.